The Elephant in the Room Gets Noticed

Microsoft announced today that it has decided to extend the warranty on all Xbox 360 consoles to 3 years. They still won't reveal the true failure rate, rumored by retailers to be as high as 33%, but they are acknowledging that far too many of the consoles have been sent back for repairs.

From Yahoo.com

"We don't think we've been getting the job done," said Robbie Bach, president of the division. "In the past few months, we have been having to make Xbox 360 console repairs at a rate too high for our liking."

Bach said the company made some manufacturing and production changes that he expects will reduce Xbox 360 hardware meltdowns, which are indicated by three flashing red lights on the front of the console. The executive declined to identify the problems Microsoft fixed, or say what problems remain that could prompt general hardware failure. Bach also would not say how many gamers have sent in machines for repair — just that the percentage is "bigger than we are comfortable with."

Considering I was just talking about this last night and do know numerous X360 owners who have had to send their consoles back, I'm glad to hear this. It's also nice to hear that MS will be refunding those who had to pay shipping or repair costs on out-of-warranty systems that failed.